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Forty-Nine
Robin stopped by her own house and changed into more serviceable, the-toilet-just-exploded clothes and her old shoes—she wasn’t crazy, just because it stopped flooding now didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen again.
Nova was quieter than normal. Robin had already checked for a fever—she didn’t think the girl was sick. Nova hadn’t said much at all—all day long. Robin had just been waiting for her to open up.
Confess her sins, so to speak.
Robin knew the little girl was upset—and she suspected she knew why. Something most likely had gone down that toilet. Before Nick and the kids had left that morning.
Nova knew exactly what it was.
"I want my Elly!” Becky was practically hopping with excitement when they pulled into Phil’s drive. She always was whenever she was going to see Elly. The two of them were going to be real hell on wheels in Masterson someday.
Robin hoped the county was prepared.
She sat Becky on the ground and watched her zoom up the porch where Glenna waited, Elly in her arms, Emmy, Evey, and Ivy next to her.
It was a wonderful place, this house. She had always loved it, always felt home here.
Phil had fixed it up in the years since she'd lived there. It was still as inviting as ever.
Noah said something about a video game coding challenge Patton had shown him last time and took off. The two had already been making plans to build their own game when they got a chance.
That left her with Nova.
Robin called to Glenna that she'd join her inside in a moment.
She and Nova had some business to attend to first. It was time for a serious talk. Before this kid stewed herself into an ulcer at six years old.
"Nova, sweetheart. Look at me." The little girl did. With big blue eyes that could melt a heart. "Is there something you need to tell me? About the mess at home?”
"I don't want my new daddy to send me away." She whispered it, breaking Robin's heart. Robin could hear the complete fear.
Of course. Life happened a lot when you were six.
Flooded toilets, broken things—it was a big and scary world, and this kid didn’t know how her daddy would react.
Robin had been nervous of how Nick would react. Why wouldn’t an innocent little girl who had already learned some seriously scary things existed in the world? They had no idea what kind of things Nova had been exposed to before.
She didn’t have the intrinsic trust a kid needed to thrive. Not yet. But she would. Nick would make sure of it. That was something Robin knew without a doubt.
It was just one of the reasons she’d fallen so hard for Nick.
"Oh, baby. Daddy will never send you anywhere. I promise. He loves you so much.” She wrapped her hand around Nova's. "Did something fall in the toilet today?"
"My Heffiepoof. It gets ten times bigger in water. I was going to put it in the bathtub, but it fell in the potty instead. And I couldn't get it out. I tried. I really did. And I think my daddy will be mad at me and send me and Noah away. Noah will have to go back to that bad place. And I will not have my daddy anymore or my friends or my bed. You won’t be my new mommy someday like I asked God for and Becky won’t getted to be my little sister forever or nothing. And I did it! I’m bad, and Daddy won’t want me no more.” She was practically wailing it in Robin’s ears now. “And Noah will go away forever, too!”
Robin just held her and rocked her, right there where they stood.
“Sweetheart, it just doesn’t work that way. Parents don't send their kids away when stuff happens. I promise. Philip put Legos down my toilet once three years ago. It made an even bigger mess than today. Water even went down the stairs. I had to replace all the carpet on the stairs and in the hallway. And I kept him. Because I love him so much. Daddy loves you just as much. I promise."
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't want my Daddy to be mad at me."
"It's best to always tell the truth. But you are telling the truth now. And that will make Daddy happy. Do you want to call him?" Robin carried her to the rocking chair on the porch. She just rocked until Nova calmed. "We can tell him it was an accident, and you are sorry. We cleaned it up; Daddy and your cousins will fix it, and it will be just fine. Stuff happens sometimes. All we can do is just fix it. Just fix it and keep going. And then fix the next stuff, too. Because there will always be stuff—what matters is how you deal with it. I promise. Everything will be ok. I promise."
It took the longest time, but Nova finally nodded her head. “I didn’t mean to be bad. I promise.”
“Accidents don’t make us bad, baby girl. They just make us…normal people who make mistakes. Nobody will ever think you are a bad person just for making mistakes. Ever. Especially Daddy or me. We just love you far too much for that to ever happen. I promise.”
“You love me, too?”
“Always and forever. I promise. And Daddy does, too.”
